This video shows the moment when Vanilla, a 28-year-old female chimpanzee saw the full sky for the first time in her life. She had lived her entire life first inside a New York biomedical research facility, and then boxed inside a roofed enclosure at a facility in California. Link to a Live Science article about her here.
The video captures the moment she emerged from a quarantine period and went outside at her new home in an island chimp sanctuary in Florida.
In the recently released video, Vanilla, at first hesitant, can be seen leaping out of a doorway and embraced by Dwight, a male chimp. Throughout the clip, she repeatedly looks skyward as she explores her new grassy, open-air habitat on the 3-acre (1.2 hectares) island.
"Shake [another rescued chimp] went out onto the island without hesitation, but Vanilla was a bit more apprehensive when the door opened to this new world," Save the Chimps representatives wrote in the statement. "She sat in the doorway until Dwight, the alpha male, encouraged her to join him."
Seeing this moment of happiness and awe may warm your heart, until you stop and think about the cruelty she endured for the previous 28 years of her life.
